Caps stay alive again

Seriously, could it really be any other way? This series was uber-hyped as one of the most important in recent NHL history, with some of the league’s greatest players playing in one of the most intese rivalries.

It might have been undersold.

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This titanic showdown just keeps getting better and better. How does a game top one that involves the two best players in the league each getting hat tricks?

How about a third overtime in four contests, with one of the said megastars putting into overtime with barely more than four minutes left after the other team had scored twice in 29 seconds to erase a lead that it had earlier coughed up by yielding two goals in less than five minutes?

Toss in another fantastic performance by a 21-year-old goalie under siege, three-point nights from both Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, the return of Alexander Semin and Viktor Kozlov — it was quite a wild and crazy night at the old Igloo.

Now the Caps will go home, rest and try to make this instant classic the last game of the this season and this rickety old building.

That’s it for now — a way too warly wake up call and drive down the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-70/270 awaits.